On the eve of this year’s Institute of Water conference, AVK UK Business Development Director, Kieran Fitzpatrick explains how the company addresses the twin themes of Global Issues and Local Solutions in a manner that enhances its ability to assist water utilities in the challenges they face.

AVK UK is part of the AVK Group – a global industrial group with 41 manufacturing sites serving sales companies in more than 80 countries.  For the water utility customer, a statement such as this might not always be initially welcomed. It could, for example prompt thoughts as:

“If the AVK Group is so big and so ubiquitous, what time will it have for me and my particular concerns?”.

The answer to the question is:

“All the time in the world” – and I am choosing my words carefully when I say that”

To explain…

As part of the Group, AVK UK certainly has an international dimension. But it is also a company that is as local as the high street bank; one that knows its market from the inside, but can draw on Group resources to come up with solutions that meet the customer’s needs both today and tomorrow “Global Thinking and Local Action” is the phrase that sums it all up, which also happens to be one of the Group’s core values – in fact the one at the very top of the list. One example of that blend of the global and local working together is to be found in our product supply chain which, depending on the component concerned, could begin at any one of our local manufacturing sites around the world; but always operate in accordance with the Group’s quality standards, which are enforced globally under the supervision of AVK’s own quality staff.

Although components are sourced from the most optimal manufacturing site, in all major markets the assembly and test operations are usually carried out where the product will be used and therefore in accordance with that countries’ own standards and local market preferences.

To take the UK market as an example, castings are made in AVK partner factories in China or Poland; the critical elastomeric components such as seals and the vulcanised wedge are manufactured by rubber moulding specialist AVK Gummi in Denmark; and everything is brought together on local assembly lines (Corby for gate valves and hydrants, Hyde for fittings) using techniques, processes and equipment that have been tried, tested and applied in Group manufacturing sites internationally.

This high degree of standardisation has been made possible by a modular approach to product design, which is centred on the Group’s technical division AVK Tech in Denmark. As a consequence AVK products use the same components worldwide, so we have one centrally controlled supply chain, a common route in which innovations are developed and consistent standards of design and quality.  But that doesn’t mean that a blanket uniformity is imposed from above; quite the opposite in fact, because the Group depends on input from its locally based businesses around the world to understand and respond to country-specific quality standards and market preferences.

This month’s Institute of Water conference features environmental concerns amongst the four ‘big issues’ that it intends to address – rightly so, and an area in which AVK has been proactive for several years now.  Here in the UK, for example, the Group took the opportunity for its brand new manufacturing facility it opened in Staveley, Chesterfield in 2007 to adopt a host of energy-saving features that enhanced the state-of-the-art manufacturing blue-print it had already turned into reality in Poland, Australia and China.  And the Corby plant has pioneered a carbon footprint monitoring programme that will benefit AVK and its customers alike as the need for carbon reduction works its way inexorably up the political agenda.

Nothing more global than the future of the planet, nothing more local than the flick of a switch – and at AVK we endeavour to be mindful of both.

The AVK website www.avkuk.co.uk provides full product information and datasheets, plus up-to-date Group news. Contact Sales on 01604 601188.